Molecular mechanism in the development and pathogenesis of fungi

The kingdom fungi is a large and diverse group of microorganisms, which reflects an extraordinary amount of eukaryotic morphological and ecological variation. Fungi undergo morphological transitions to adapt to the changing environment during their life cycles. For example, the rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae develops the three-celled conidia and subsequently generates the dome-shaped appressoria on the leaf cuticle to produce a filamentous penetration peg that differentiates into multicellular bulbous invasive hyphae. However, the molecular mechanism of these different morphological changes and developmental processes are still not completely known in fungi.

This Research Topic aims to identify the development and pathogenicity-related proteins in fungi and characterize the biological function and mechanism of these proteins during the fungi and environment interactions. We welcome Original Research or Review papers that discuss the molecular mechanism of key proteins on fungal development and pathogenesis.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following

• Characterization and functions of regulator of fungal development or pathogenicity by functional genomics, transcriptomics or metabolomics.

• Research on biotic or abiotic environmental stresses and fungi interactions.

• Study of molecular mechanism in fungal morphological transitions during their life cycles.

Keywords: Fungal development; pathogenesis, functional genomics; fungi-environment interactions

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.